Cleveland Indians fans cheer on their team sporting red face makeup

A small group of Cleveland Indians fans thought it was a smart idea to paint their faces red and white so they looked like Chief Wahoo.

Yes, that really did happen Wednesday night during the Indians 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League wild card game.

The Cleveland Indians offensive Chief Wahoo logo.

Playing in the inaptly named Progressive Field, the Indians didn’t score a run in their last game of the 2013 season. They managed nine hits, but proved to be little competition for the Rays.

Perhaps karma bit the Indians in the ass because their season is done.

With other sports franchises getting excoriated by media and the public (Redskins, Braves, Chiefs, Blackhawks) perhaps this is the time Cleveland’s baseball team considers a change as well? Wednesday’s display was over the top and should not be tolerated in a progressive society.

Would any fan have the audacity to put on blackface to attend a game? Or go dressed as a Jew with a hooked nose? Of course not so why is red face any different?

The history of the Indians logo, Chief Wahoo (seriously, that was offensive 50 years ago!) goes back to 1946, when team owner Bill Veeck wanted an updated cartoon-like logo created for the Cleveland baseball team. He hired young designer Walter Goldbach to come up with an image and the basic design has been around ever since. It was sportswriters at the time who came up with the nickname for the logo.

It has been updated a few times over the years, but the offensive caricature of a native American remains.

The team was first called the Indians way back in 1915, not exactly a time of racial harmony or equality in America. Heck, women didn’t yet have the vote, so that says a lot about the times in which the name was created. The American army continued fighting natives well into the 1920s, in the west of the country.

Recently, the Washington Redskins have also come under fire for what might be the most egregious of all team names. Team owner Dan Snyder – who is known to be stubborn, incendiary and downright cuckoo – has promised to “never” change the name. But respected NFL writers such as Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, who promises to stop using the word on the brand new MMQB.com site, have moved to the side of political and moral correctness.

There are plenty of words we agree to no longer use in polite company, so it is just a matter of time these sports franchises see the light and stop with this racism.

Not surprisingly, there seems to be little appetite to support those misguided fans from Wednesday’s game.